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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22622833">Stories of the Second Self: Waxing Moon</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner'>John_Steiner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [111]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Police - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:41:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,281</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22622833</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Struggling with the affect his police response had on a family tied to drug distribution, Cole Chaney redoubles his efforts to save his own marriage, but to no avail. However, Chaney is able to strengthen his relationship with his daughter, Jaclynn. Then, Cole's twenty-eight day transition from human to werewolf forces major life changes, and he finds Jaclynn experiencing the same shift of identity. In the days before Alter Idem, Cole has to manage and hide his and Jaclynn's condition.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Alter Idem [111]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stories of the Second Self: Waxing Moon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Not long after a particularly bad scene that I responded to, one which left that family fractured forever, I worked harder on my own. The wife and our younger kid didn't appreciate the more frequent camping trips I had us go on, but Jaclynn, our daughter, she loved it as much as I did.</p><p>That wasn't the main reason my marriage didn't last, but looking back I realized there were warning signs. Majority custody of my son went to my ex-wife, though I got visitation every few months. Jaclynn was old enough to decide, and she chose to stay with me.</p><p>It was after that things changed in ways we couldn't have imagined. My dog, a husky German Shepard mix named Tull, reacted funny one day after I got home from work. The moment I stepped inside, he dropped down and peered up at me with submissive eyes. His tail wagged, but somehow it wasn't quite right. I couldn't say why, though, and he whined while edging closer in a laying position.</p><p>I knelt down in front of him, patting his head and asking, "What's wrong Tull? Hmm? You feelin' okay, buddy?"</p><p>First, he sniffed my hand, seeming confused by me, and then he lit right up and stood to give me kisses like he would any other day. His overall demeanor since then was different. I wouldn't have to say anything to keep him behaving. A simple glance, and Tull stopped whatever he knew he shouldn't do.</p><p>Jaclynn noticed the next change, and remarked on the fact my hairline stopped receding and even grew back, though it also spread down my neck. Jaclynn's own hair, which was a dark red like her mother's, did pretty much the same thing. For myself, I had to start shaving that down to comply with department dress code.</p><p>The rest followed over the course of a month; being able to pick up subtler movements in my vision, including facial expressions. Took a few months to figure out what they all meant. However, when smell and hearing got better that really had me scratching my head. Improved fitness was great but totally unexpected.</p><p>Late April rolled around, and the first camping trip after the divorce was coming up. It was just Jaclynn, me, and the dog. That early in the year, the state camp grounds aren't so busy. That's the best time alongside late fall. Cherokee Park, Ohio is where I drove. Most people choose either the cabins or the RV parts, but Jaclynn and I prefer tent sites.</p><p>We got the tent up at around three in the afternoon, and then ate sandwiches, even gave one to Tull, and then we soaked in the sights, sounds, and smells. Everything came to me with more intensity than I remembered before. Euphoria swept over me, as I leaned back in the yard chair.</p><p>That night turned my world upside down. When I woke, I realized that I was burning up in my sleeping bag. In my sleep, I had kicked off my socks. Jaclynn stirred in hers also, but seemed to still be asleep. Quietly, I crawled out of mine and slipped out the tent to get some fresh air. Overhead, shone the moon not quite full but maybe a couple days short of it.</p><p>It hit just then.</p><p>I felt and heard cracking in my chest, which spread all over in seconds. Next, my muscles ached from what seemed like stretching, bunching, and twisting all at once.The tips of my fingers and toes throbbed as if swelling up, but didn't appear any different. My ears felt inflamed, and then my nose and mouth.</p><p>Before I knew it, I felt a painful pressure at my tailbone, and realized it was pushing out against my jeans. Trying to pull them down to see what was going on, I found that my fingernails were gone. However, the bending and kinking in the seat of my pants got worse, so I hurriedly pulled those off.</p><p>After, my shirt grew tighter. I was always a burly guy since high school, but getting a look at my bare chest revealed the biggest jolt I got to that moment. There was only a short moment where I could see how much more tone my muscles were, before every square inch of skin was covered by... not hair, but fur.</p><p>The burning intensified so much, that I felt like someone shoved me into an oven. Reduced to my hands and knees from the burning heat, the breaking of every bone in my body, and the contrasting contortions of muscle, I saw my nose and mouth stretch before my eyes. That I saw it clearly enough in the moonlight didn't consciously register.</p><p>"T'slynn," I tried calling out, only to hear it in raspy growling form.</p><p>Tull came around from behind the tent, which apparently is where he hid before I woke up. He again assumed that submissive posture, low-crawling toward me with his tail tucked in. His eyes were closed to slits, as he licked into the air toward me with his head low and upward.</p><p>And just like that, the burning dialed down. Still on my hands and knees, I reached out to pat him, but noticed what happened to my hand. Turning it over, I saw that it was more like a paw with an enlarged dew claw toe for a thumb. I could still pivot my thumb around, though there were thick pads on my fingertips and across the upper part of my palm at the base of my fingers. At the base of my palm was a small knob, just like those on Tull's fore paws.</p><p>Starting to realize that similarity, I felt around my face and head. I had a muzzle, but more robust than Tull's and my ears were high up the sides of my head and smoothly triangular. Fur everywhere, and seeing I had a tail, pretty much eliminated any lingering doubt about what I just went through.</p><p>"Da'd?" spoke a higher pitched gruff voice from within the tent.</p><p>Jaclynn emerged from the tent and jolted at the sight of me, just as I had with her. "Dsh'aclynn?"</p><p>In the night illumination, colors weren't as pronounced, but I could tell that her dark red hair still lingered on her head and mane, as well as long patches down the sides of her body. Though, the rest was gray, brown, and black.</p><p>Yet, we knew each other, and rushed into a mutual embrace, while I struggled to reassure her. "We'll ge'st t'rough dis."</p><p>Tull jumped up and licked at both our muzzles. Jaclynn and I looked to the moon above. I'd learn later that the moon had nothing to do with it, but for the night it seemed to dictate the terms of our physical state. Only when we drifted off to sleep and awoke the next morning, did we see our old selves again, but we were both famished.</p><p>For a few years we had this secret to keep, and so only used isolated camping trips or late night excursions into some of the larger forested parks in Cincinnati to let our other side out. Once, Jaclynn had been kidnapped, but we resolved that without revealing ourselves.</p><p>Others came later, and the night outings at the parks became a regular thing before more supernaturals emerged and became more widely known. We realized letting the wolf out was a necessity to a full and balanced life.</p><p>As Jaclynn entered high school at Norwood High, she was still the same kid her friends knew he as before. In Cincinnati PD, I was still Cole Creighton Chaney, Senior Patrolman.</p>
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